How about adding a list of x length of recently used operators to Blender search? That would cover all the repetitive needs pretty well I think. Just have it ignore shortcut key inputs.

Vista and 7 users who have learned to use search will understand what I’m getting at. Actually, as more people get comfortable with the “search based interface” of modern operating systems (think Spotlight, Beagle, Vista, 7 etc.) the same concepts would make using Blender easier for all.

Yeah, I know.. it would mean typing text, reading, and developing understanding of application concepts. Hopefully these are things we haven’t evolved too far past!.

Following a thread on Blenderartist.org I looked more into the issue of what happens when cloth with collisions gets “trapped” by the collision object. Here’s some results from those tests. The primary leasson I got from this was the need to have a “gap” that is larger then the combined distances of BOTH the cloth and object collision properties settings. In this case I used shape keys to animate a space in the thigh for the calves to fill. This space is hidden from camera view as much as possible. Goes to show that it’s still important to know how to “cheat” a scene.

A question was raised on the Blender Artist Forum as to why I suggest parenting your cloth object to a BONE of your armature instead of the armature itself. I think this test video illustrates the issue very well.

As you can see, the cloth objects location stays fixed relative to the armatures object center when parented directly to the armature causing a stretching too occur. In a cloth over body situation with movement this would cause the cloth to “whip” off of the underlying body object.

The cloth object on the right moves with the top bone of the armature as it is animated keeping it positioned properly to interact with an underlying body.

The lesson here is that it is important WHICH bone you choose to parent your cloth to, make sure it is one that the cloth object (shirt, pants, dress) can “hang” from while still being kept in position on the body.

Well it’s about time I kept a better record of the various tests and tutorials I get involved with making for myself and the Blender community. Hopefully you’ll find something of value here for your own projects.